Salsero wrote:Matcha Babe,If you read Mary R's comments above about anons, she points out that they are almost always1) frustrated people trying to sign up and wanting to know who to contact about problems, 2) members of the general public who want to know what they did wrong in brewing their tea.

Both are infrequent, but I think both are public services we should offer in the spirit of community.

Sometimes the late-night anons choose to post less benign things (e.g. racist comments). Perhaps that experience has shaped my response unduly. It's true that I haven't seen as much of that sort of thing earlier in the day.

Anyway, Mary's point is a fair one. If it's decided to include anonymous participants on IM, I certainly won't complain.

Yep I agree to bring back and keep the chat window as part of the website to make it a truly alive tea chat. I also think you should limit it to registered users given the concerns for abuse as if somebody is not willing to be labeled by their username than they should not be able to use the service, just like AOL IM.

Mary R wrote:I don't know if it's currently set up to only show for registered users or not. There's a lot of upsides to being registered only (mainly the absence of trolls), but it also excludes anons who are just popping by to ask a quick, legit question and eliminates immediate feedback to people who are having issues logging in or figuring out how to work the boards. And, hey, seeing actual conversation going on is good advertisement to new people checking the site out. In fact, I think reading some of Warden, Hop, EO, and Sal's conversations was what prompted me to de-lurk..

Before I became more involved - I came in as "Anon" to find out how - I would hate to deny someone else that avenue -
( good morning all)

laran7 wrote:Before I became more involved - I came in as "Anon" to find out how - I would hate to deny someone else that avenue -( good morning all)

Now that you mention it, my first TeaChat appearance was as anonymous right after ordering an Adagio green tea sampler set. Having gotten my toes in the water, I turned up as a user within minutes. And they haven't been able to get rid of me yet.